Till death do you part
by Iceinherheart
Summary: because when your stuck in a afterlife you never wanted, focusing on the good times can be very hard.


'…till death do you part?' 'Oh and beyond that!'

The world of the library was incredibly dull sometimes. This was the second thing River Song noticed about the fake world - the first was that even with all her company, she was so very, very lonely. After about a week (it was nearly impossible to keep time here, a bit like in the T.A.R.D.I.S) of all eight of them - Anita, Miss. Evangelista, Other Dave, Proper Dave, Charlotte, Ella, Joshua and herself - living in one big house, they decided to split into three separate 'families': Other Dave, Anita and Joshua; Proper Dave, Miss. Evangelista and Ella and River and Charlotte. Now they lived in a square house with a pentagon lobby and three doors, behind each was the living space of the each group...

'Bleep' 'bleep' the repetitive noise of the alarm got ever so annoying after a while of listening to nothing else; plus the noise would also wake Charlotte, meaning River had thirty-six seconds to get out of bed before she was jumped on. So River pulled herself out of the cold bed and tucked her dressing gown around her thin body, before she left without a second glance.

After a month of it, she still wasn't a fan of sleeping alone night after night; it was still strange without _him_.

She made her way downstairs after stopping to check her 'daughter' was awake and out of bed. She pulled the cereal box and bowl out of the cupboards that where to high for Charlotte to reach and the pair began their morning routine of dressing and packing and finally leaving.

It was only once she'd taken Charlotte to school (why there where schools in the land of the dead nobody knew) and returned home to pick up her bag she'd forgotten, did she notice the date on the calendar.  
Wednesday the 26th of March. Her birthday. Or rather, this date was nine months after she was conceived, since no-one alive, not even her mother, knew _when_ she was born.  
Well, _he_ might have known, but this was always the date he'd picked her up on and... And she needed to stop thinking of that!

The only thing about the birthday was that her boss (such a kind man, he was) had given her the day off. What was she going to do on a day off without Charlotte or any of the others? This was just great.

River ended up spending the day in the library. No, not the library of whose computer they were stuck in, rather the area above the lobby full with books and chairs.  
Miss. Evangelista, who had insisted that her co-workers call her Eva, had offered to pick Charlotte up from school and had not taken 'No' for an answer, so that had taken that of the list. Then suddenly...  
"RIVER!" Eva's voice rang out from the door, followed by the squeals of the three children and the clattering of their footsteps. River smiled partially and pulled herself out of her seat.  
"Up here!" she called down as she slid her book back into the bookshelf "Give me a minute."  
The kids where waiting eagerly at the bottom of the stairs, they knew the rules: no going in the library unless they were told to.

"Happy Birthday!" the little voices called before she was even halfway down the stairs, their toes pressed against the bottom stair.  
"Give her some space, guys." Other Dave told them, gently pulling the trio away from the stairs by the hoods of their coats. River smiled slightly at him, he was so quiet sometimes - she hadn't even heard him come in. "You all right, Riv? Had a good day?"

River made a small noise that sounded like a giggle but wasn't, _he_ was the only person in the whole universe that had ever made her giggle and it would stay that way!  
"I've been bored out of my mind all day! I hate days off, they're boring!" back when she was alive, River would avoid days off the best she could but if worst came to worst and she couldn't get around them, she'd get out the trusty physic paper and spend the day out in space with _him_. But not here.  
"Right. Well, you've got 15 minuets, go get dressed." Eva told her.

_'Right, we've got 10 minuets, go get dressed' 'that's so close to the perfect sentence._'

River shock off the unmeaning painful words and cocked an eyebrow at the women.  
"15 minuets? To what?"  
"Go get changed and you'll see." it was Charlotte who pulled her away in the end and the pair slowly made their was up stairs in their apartment. River helped get Charlotte dressed first, picking out a loose purple dress from the wardrobe and doing the zip on the back up. She let Charlotte pick out her own shoes as she left the room to get changed.  
She pull out the only dress in her wardrobe: a short, strap-less number in a deep crimson she could have sworn wasn't there yesterday.

_'You look amazing in Red, so sexy, so beautiful...'_

She pulled the dress on and did it up as tight as she could on her own. It was a silly little thing but for as long as she could remember (and she had a pretty good memory) she'd never let anyone help her with the small tasks, like doing up dresses or help pick outfits - only _him_... and her Dad that one time she had roped him into helping her shop for prom dresses in year 11, it wasn't worth the effort really, Rory was the only person who she'd danced with. She pulled on the blood-red heals she'd worn on the Byzantium...

_'Who is she and how come she can fly the T.A.R.D.I.S?' 'You call that flying the T.A.R.D.I.S? Ha!'_

...or at least an animated version of them and glanced in the mirror on her wall. She frowned. How could _he _ever even consider that she'd like a life like this? How could he ever think she be happy without him? River wasn't a domestic kind of person; not at all. She was more of a 'shoot now, I'll answer your questions when I think it won't rip a hole in the space-time continuum.' kind of girl. What was left of her hearts after the repeated shattering they had experienced in her life gave a small tug in her chest, like they did every time she tried to remember what he'd looked like, when she'd think of his name. She'd given up waiting for him, he wasn't coming. She'd waited so long that the incredibly sharp, stabbing pain she had experience in those first few day when she had sat down and cried, because part of her still hoped he'd save her from this prison when her brain told her it wasn't possible, was gone. Would he want this for her? Probably. Who would want anything less than personal hell for their murderer?

_'We don't kill them, we extract them at the end of their established time-line' 'and then what?' 'Give them hell.'_  
_'And you are forgiven. Always and completely forgiven.'_

"Mummy?"  
River turned to see Charlotte standing by the door. She had been so caught up in her thoughts she hadn't heard the knocks or the foot steps until she couldn't ignore them anymore.  
"Hay Charlie." River smiled slightly, sweeping her eyes over the small girls figure. "Wow honey, you look beautiful! Give us a twirl?" The child giggled as she span in circles like a dog chasing its tail, the plum colour dress floating out around her legs. River laughed and fell to her knees beside the spinning child.

She seamed to be doing more of that lately (the laughing - not the falling over; that would be bad!) and all the adults pretended that she looked healthier when she laughed, she knew she didn't. She pulled Charlotte to a stop and pulled her on to her lap, running her fingers through the Childs hair soothingly.

"Why are you crying, Mummy? Do you miss the Doctor again?" Charlotte whispered against her neck and River gave a harsh shudder at the name - it was just so damn hard, and the dreams weren't helping ether.  
"I always miss him, Sweetie." even his old nick-name hurt to say! "but right now, we have a party to get to." she gave an incredibly convincing grin and pulled them both to their feet, turning back to the mirror to correct any makeup smudges before taking Charlotte's hand then making their way out of the flat.

"How did you know it was a party?" the young brunette pouted as River pulled the door closed and lead her to the stair case; parties where one of the very rear times the kids were allowed in the library.  
"Dr. Moon is terrible at keeping secrets!"

The party went off without a hitch and even Dr. Moon put in a quick appearance. River really laughed and smiled for the first time in what felt like years. She adored her presents, the majority of them archaeology tools…

_'I'm a time-traveller, I point and laugh at archaeologists'_

Apart from Charlotte's hand-made papier-mâché T.A.R.D.I.S and a book from Eva with every recipe known to man (Quite useful considering Eva was trying to teach her how to cook - trying and failing). River was just reaching over Ella's head to hug Miss. Evangelista when Charlotte's eyes lit up. Out the corner of her own eye she saw Charlotte pinch Proper Dave on the leg. She pulled away almost immediately.

"Charlotte! You know to don't pinch people. Don't you ever let me see you doing that again... And what are you looking at?"  
When River turned, the first thing she saw where the eyes. Deep hazel. Her own personal heaven. Then the mop of hair, then the bow ties. If she wasn't already kneeling she probably would have fallen. He smiled.  
"Hello Sweetie!"

* * *

River attempted to turn onto her back in her bed but quickly gave up on that as the dull aching pain in her back. Well, in her body really - every inch of her being throbbed. Weird... River bolted up right suddenly, ignoring her pain, and looked down at her bed.

Empty.

Of course it was a dream; It always was. She led back on the bed in thought, she didn't cry at the dreams anymore but instead gave over to the part of her brain that loved a puzzle; what would she do of it hadn't been? Jumped on him probably (not that she wouldn't have done that the night before).  
So today was her birthday then - she realised out of the blue. So all she had to do was get Charlotte to school and the days was...

Wait, get Charlotte to school? She turned - 8:39 the clock read. She had twenty minuets!

River throw her covers off and pulled her gown tightly around herself.  
She rushed to the next room to pull the more-than-likely slumbering child from her sleep.

The room was empty.  
"Charlotte?" No reply. River pulled a face but turned on her heel and ran downstairs skipping half of them as she did. Forget about ironing Charlotte's cloths alway looked straight, ironed or not; skip breakfast - no time. Just the essentials: pack, dress and go.

"Charlotte?" she turned the corner to the kitchen and ran into something solid. "Ah!"

"Oh thanks, the first thing you say to me once you wake is 'Ah'? Because talking in your sleep wouldn't count, otherwise it would probably be something I will refuse to repeat. I'd give you an example of things I would refuse to say but that would require me saying them, which defeated the objective of the..."

"Doctor?" River whispered incredibly quietly.  
"Yes?" The Doctor grinned at her.  
"You're here?"  
"Yep!" the Doctor smiled as River placed a single hand against his cheek and he leant into her palm like a cat addicted to being petted. She withdrew her hand quickly before bringing the other hand up and smacking him around the jaw. Hard.

"Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. River!" he backed away from her.  
"You disappeared and left me to think that all of last night was a dream, that it was all in my head!" she screeched. But however cross she was, she still had to fight back a smile when his back straitened, a devilish glint in his eye.  
"River Love, I doubt even you are creative enough to dream up _that_!" he teased.

"NOT THE POINT!" she shrieked

"I had you back, and I woke up and found myself alone, it was like…" the searched for the right analogy. "like taking the T.A.R.D.I.S away from you forever, giving her back for 17 hours then taking her away again!… It _hurt_." he pulled her into a hug, burying his face in her neck as she whimpered in .

"Sorry. I only came down to get tea." he spoke into her hair, before he pushed her away to hold onto her shoulders, his arms straight, and grinned.  
"I thought I'd have time to get back upstairs before you woke. Miss. Evangelist offered to have Charlotte sleep at her's, no sorry /their's/, last night, and she took her to school as well; Anita called the university, told your boss you won't be in any time in the next few days, he's fine with that, lovely man - not like Mr. Lux at all. All the others are at work - why you need work in the land of the dead is beyond me, Archeology too, I -"

As her pervious attempts to stop this long (well, it wasn't long yet, but it would be if she let him continue any longer) rant of his - shushing him, standing on his foot ect. - had failed she tried one last thing. Catching the lapels of his jacket (why did he put it all back on just to make tea?) she tugged him down until his was mouth against hers. When she eventually pulled away, he was silent.  
Silent but smiling.~

"Come on you, six hours till the kids get home. What are we gonna do first?" he laughed, pulling her into the living room where, laid out on the table was a large tray, full of her favourite foods… or her favourite breakfast foods, at least. The room was dark and the only light was casted by the candles around the room.

"Ok, I lied; I didn't just come down for tea but I honestly did mean to be back up before you woke. I just thought: with everything I have put you through in your life, the least I could do for you is make you breakfast. That's not all I'll be doing obviously, but breakfast just sounded like a safe place to start 'cause, well, when you where, you know, alive, I kinda never stayed in one place long enough to actually sit down and eat with you, let alone make it, so I decided now I have nowhere to go anymore - not that that's a bad think, really not a bad thing - maybe I should do a few of the things I never really had time for before, even with a time machine. I thought -"

"Sweetie. You're rambling!" she cut him off and he fell silent with a small  
"Sorry!" she inhaled sharply, feeling her eyes fill with tears and fall down her cheeks as she looked around the room.

"River?" he asked worried, "What's wrong? Is there something I didn't do right? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry, I -"  
"Happy tears, love. Humany-wumany happy tears." she laughed, leaning back against him and _giggling _when his arm wrapped around her waist from behind her. He moved, pulling her by the hand until she was sat in the chair in front of the tray. He sat opposite her, constantly smiling and nicking several things, Jamie Dodgers mostly, off her plate. She looked down at the food; the presentation was lousy and several small bits where burnt, but he had made it, so it was perfect.

"Can you do it though, love?" she asked gently, chewing thoughtfully.  
"Do what?" he asked, not eating anything nutritious himself - not a surprise - but simply watching her, like she was the most fascinating, most precious, most _beautiful _thing he had ever seen… and the Doctor had seen a lot.  
"Stay." she answered simply, only going into detail when she looked up and saw his look of pure confusion.

"This isn't running around and saving planets, you know? This is my life: a job, a house, a family - well, kinda. Looking after someone else's family I guess, - and that's not you're kind of life, is it? How can you be sure you won't get board and want to leave soon?"

"Melody Pond," he gasped in mock hurt, "I'm shocked at how little confidence you have in me!" he laughed softly before leaning over and catching her free hand in both of his, staring at her seriously. "River, it's not running and traveling, although I'm sure we could do that anyway, those fields look pretty big from the little I've seen of them. But, River, it's better than that! It's you and me, and it's a time for me to show you, and everyone, that you -" he tightened his grip on her hand and she placed her other, now free hand over his, "- are the most important, wonderful thing that has ever happened to me, and that those two blue books tell the best story in my very long life. It was agony, River, those years without you and you know what?"

"What?" She asked without hesitation, she trusted him, always, even if it was a terrible mistake sometimes.

"Maybe this time I'll have a chance to give you everything! Everything you've ever wanted or deserved: the memories you would have, the wedding I never gave you, the family you should have had. And it gives me a chance to be the good man you where looking for. Because, it might not be big and splendid, River, but it's everything I could ever ask for and more and I'll always be here for you, until the day you tell me to leave. I will love you forever, River Song, you know that, don't you?"

"I do, my love. And as long as it's you and me, it'll be perfect."

"Forever."

* * *

Ha! errors changed and formated!  
but I really have no idea how the Doctor ended up in the library, I imagine him dyeing after a reckless battle with the Daleks or something like that... but I shall leave the decision to you, dearest Reader.


End file.
